AZ Air Conditioning and Heating Blog : Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

Here at AZ Air Conditioning and Heating, we usually use this blog to give our customers tips and tactics for making the most out of their heating and air conditioning systems. But we’d like to make an announcement for an honor that we’re very proud of. Our President and CEO, Richard A Copelan, has earned the Better Business Bureau’s prestigious Award of Excellence on behalf of the company!

Homes in the Thousand Oaks area come in all shapes and sizes, and what works for one home might not work for another. Accordingly, you need to think carefully about the kind of HVAC system your home uses.

Most of us are accustomed to traditional centralized heating and air, in which a single unit generate hot air or cool which, then blows it through the ducts into your home. It’s an efficient system, but it’s not the only one out there, and another type may actually serve your home better.

Like most of Southern California, Burbank residences tend to rely on forced-air furnaces for heat. They’re simple and efficient, able to do the job in our mild climate without a lot of energy being expended.

Furnaces are further divided into two basic categories: gas furnaces and electric furnaces, denoting the fuel source they use for heat. Both models tend to have benefits and drawbacks If you’re looking to replace your furnace — either in the spring or sooner — it pays to understand the benefits and the drawbacks.

Torrance, CA enjoys mild winters like a lot of Southern Calfornia, and that can make for an interesting dilemma when the time comes to replace it. Back east, if an old heater breaks down before spring arrives, you have to replace it. The weather is simply too cold otherwise. But here in So Cal, a heater that’s on its last legs might be able to limp through until spring, giving you the time to make the change at a more leisurely pace. In the end, only you can make that decision, but here are a few guidelines to help you make that choice.

Heating breakdowns always seem to happen when you least expect them, and with winter officially here in Los Angeles, CA, you can’t afford to wait around for a repair service. But just because your heating system won’t turn on, that doesn’t mean that the problem requires a professional technician. While laymen should never attempt to repair a faulty furnace themselves, you can always check your system for basic fixes that require no training to resolve. They could help you avoid a service charge from bringing a technician to your home for no reason.

We don’t think about our heaters nearly as often as we do our air conditioning systems here in the Los Angeles, CA area. Winters are so mild here that our heaters rarely get a serious workout, and heating bills tend to be very low when compared with other parts of the country. That doesn’t mean we should pay more than necessary for reliable heating, however. You can take steps to improve the efficiency of your heater, which will not only lower those monthly bills, but can help prevent wear and tear on your system too. Here are a few suggestions on the best ways to do that.

It’s easy to forget that Southern California is basically a desert, and that dry air still affects towns like Torrance, CA in ways we don’t always acknowledge. Temperature control is usually the name of the game in household comfort: keeping our homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter. But dry air can be a much bigger problem this season than cool air. Our winter temperatures are quite mild, but low humidity levels are a problem you can’t always ignore.

Most heating systems in the Burbank, CA area are forced-air furnaces, which generate heat from a centralized locale and then blow it into your home with a system of ducts. It’s a simple and effective way to keep your home warm in a mild climate like ours. Moreover, by checking the vents periodically, you can spot the signs of a problem with your heater. And while only a trained professional can diagnose an issue accurately, you can give yourself a leg up by checking the vents and looking for any of the following issues:

Strange Noises

Strange noises mean anything that you don’t normally associate with the normal functioning of your system: groans, hums, whistles or any other unusual sound. They tend to carry through the ducts, which means you can often hear them if you listen at the vents. Strange noises tend to start and stop in sync with the starting and stopping of your furnace.

Low Air Flow

Low air flow can be caused by breaches in the ducts, a clog or blockage, or a problem with the fan motor, among other issues. It lowers the system’s efficiency, and the hot air sitting in your furnace can cause components to overheat.

Low Heat Levels

Sometimes, the air flow can be just fine, but the air feels cooler than you might expect. This usually means a problem with the burners or some kind of breach that introduces cool air into the system. This can cause the same problems that reduced air flow does: adding strain to your system, which raises the possibility of a breakdown somewhere else (as well as causing your monthly bills to spike).

If you notice anything odd about the air coming out of your vents, shut the system off and call AZ Air Conditioning and Heating right away!

Most homes in the greater Los Angeles, CA area rely on forced-air furnaces to generate heat in the winter. These systems use gas burners or electric coils to heat the air in their chamber, then blow the air through the ducts into your home. It’s a safe and reliable system, but it can encounter trouble from time to time, like any system. And that can include a reduced air flow from the vents.

The furnace could be functioning exactly as needed, but if the air doesn’t get where it needs to go, it’s going to cause some serious problems. The causes are usually fairly simple — a problem with the fan motor, bent fan blades or some manner of blockage in the vents themselves — but unless those problems are identified by a trained technician and corrected, it could add up to a very expensive repair.

The good news about living in Burbank, CA and other towns in Southern California, is that a heating problem rarely proves a disaster. Unlike the East Coast, where a broken heater can be actively dangerous in cold weather, we can usually get through by dressing warmly and keeping an eye on the elderly and similarly vulnerable residents.

But what’s the proper procedure for responding to a heating problem? Only a trained technician can diagnose and correct the specific problem, but you can do a great deal to help out your own cause in the interim.